5 ms·
When you're young you might feel the tedium of taking care of a kiddo...drudgery of the daily regime. But as you get older you realize that the effort or lack
by irln 11y ago
When you're young you might feel the tedium of taking care of a kiddo...drudgery of the daily regime. But as you get older you realize that the effort or lack thereof you put into those tasks can give life great meaning or be your biggest regret.
- icebraining 11y agoIt's a nice theory, but the concept of "men overworking to avoid going home" didn't become a trope by chance. Not everyone feels the meaning given by those tasks.
- dvirsky 11y agoThere should be a balance I suppose. I'm sorry but playing pretend-grocery-store with my 3yo girl can't compete with the challenge and satisfaction of cracking a really hard algorithm or a similar problem. But having a family in general gives life way more meaning than creating some app or website.
- irln 11y agoPlease don't take this the wrong way and this is just one man's opinion. When that 3 year old girl is older and naturally becomes independent and moves on from you to the next steps in her life, that pretend grocery store experience will be orders of magnitude more meaningful to you than solving ANY hard algorithm. Not judging, not preaching, just giving you thoughts based upon experience.
- dvirsky 11y agoI don't think I disagree with that, I'm just saying that being with my children is not always fun or interesting. Louis CK has some excellent bits about this stuff.
- blairbeckwith 11y agoOh, thank god Louis CK has covered this. Case closed, then.
- irln 11y agoLouis CK has pretty amazing insight...I'll check it out.
- bhouston 11y agoFor me is isn't either or but rather both - algorithms, startups and family.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- irln 11y agoI'm not saying that everyone feels the meaning given by those tasks. IMHO, if you asked those same men "overworking to avoid going home" what they regret later in life, not being with their kids will rank very high.
- humanrebar 11y ago> Not everyone feels the meaning given by those tasks. OK. Do meaningful things with your kids then. Make art. Volunteer at a food bank. Learn how to grow tomatoes. Build a robot. There are more options than "fold socks" and "put cover letters on the TPS reports".
- mhurron 11y agoNot everyone wants a kid. It is not a failure at life, it is not their greatest regret.
- irln 11y agoNowhere in my comment did I say that everyone wants a kid nor that they are a failure at life if they don't have one. What I said was in response to the comment about family life being boring.
- shkkmo 11y agoWell, you didn't qualify your sweeping general statement at all. You seem to be implying that nobody should find family life boring and not want it.
- irln 11y agoFirst, I didn't intend making a "statement". I made an innocent, if not necessarily crystal clear, comment which attempted to give one person's experience to those that have already chosen to have a child. NOT a comment about the merits of having a child or not.
- andrepd 11y agoI agree with you, but I wouldn't presume to tell someone else how to give their lives meaning, just because I'm "older", or to tell someone they will later regret not taking the same path in live as me. Some people just aren't cut out for the family life.
- irln 11y agoI didn't tell anyone to do anything because I'm older. I shared that if you do choose to have a family one person's experience is that you will cherish the moments you are serving your children. And I share this as someone who has gone through it in the hope that sharing might in some small way assist those that have not gone through it yet.